Pit Bull grabs top spot for energy drinks

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Move over Red Bull. Another energy drink, Pit Bull, is cleaning your clock when it comes to taste. But according to the Taster's Choice panel's recent tasting of 17 brands of the red-hot drinks, that wouldn't be hard.

The truth is that people can't be buying energy drinks for their taste, the panel discovered. Most of the drinks had flavors like bubble gum, melted Jell-O, bitter medicine or worse. Only three drinks ranked even modestly well.

Both regular and diet versions were included in the brands tasted. Most came in the familiar slender aluminum cans; a few came in bigger cans; and one came in a pull-tab aseptic box. Most contain caffeine, sweeteners and various vitamins and other "power ingredients." Actual coffee-based drinks were not included.

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Top-ranking Pit Bull ($1.99 for 8.4 ounces, Safeway) is harder to find than many of the other drinks. All four tasters liked it, comparing the flavor to ginger ale. "A clean, tart citrus flavor," and "would be a good mixer" were among the comments. Two tasters would buy it, and two might.

Fuze Omega ($1.99 for 16 ounces, Andronico's) ranked second. The tasters were put off a bit by its cloudiness, but were happy to find a drink that wasn't too sweet. "Smells fruity -- nice citrus," "pleasantly sweet" and "better balance of fruit and flavor," the tasters said. Three would buy this brand, and one might.

Third place went to the drink-in-a-box, Zola Acai ($2.39 for 11 ounces, Whole Foods). Tasters split on this one. Two liked its "pure fruit flavor, grapey and tart" or "tasty berry flavor," though not appreciating its cloudy look. Two others said it tastes "herbal, slightly tannic, vegetal" or "like bad grape juice." Two would buy it; two would not.